Article snippet: Photo Shamsuldeen Ahmed Saed and Haitham Younis Wahab rigging a small water pump in the Rashidiya neighborhood of Mosul, Iraq. Credit Ben C. Solomon/The New York Times MOSUL, Iraq — The water taps are dry in Rashidiya.The water and sewage system collapsed in this eastern Mosul neighborhood after 100 days of street combat. On Sunday, Haitham Younis Wahab and his neighbor Shamsuldeen Ahmed Saed decided to do something about it.Out came the sledgehammers, steel pipes and shovels.The two men pounded and dug for three days. Sixteen feet down. Twenty feet down. Nothing. And then, 26 feet beneath the cracked sidewalk, they struck water. After all, they live just a half mile from the muddy Tigris River, which divides eastern and western Mosul.We came across the two neighbors as we walked through the crumbling streets of Rashidiya to find out how residents were faring three weeks after Iraqi security forces had driven most Islamic State fighters from eastern Mosul.Every few blocks was another freshly dug well. Some residents had penetrated worn pavement by pounding a pipe with a sledgehammer for hours and days. Others dug through the muddy earth with picks, shovels or hand-cranked drills operated by two men.Photo Residents of Rashidiya at their homemade well. Credit David Zucchino/The New York Times Mr. Wahab and Mr. Saed had cobbled together sections of hose and a small electric pump ... Link to the full article to read more